9.1 Proposal: Control Facility Improvements

[Mikus Grinbergs]

Under the topic "Clarifying the zoom levels", Eben wrote:
> ... a way to branch out further and switch collaboration servers in a
> way friendlier than the control panel.

A problem has already been described - that the existing Control 
Panel "takes over" the screen, preventing the user from seeing / 
manipulating information that is not part of the Control Panel. 
[One solution would be to have a separate 'pseudo-Activity' screen 
for the Control Panel - then the user can "tab" to other screens (or 
invoke Views) while leaving Control Panel still open.]

I'm requesting discussion of two other "improvements" to control 
facilities:

((1)) Making it easier to "reach" certain control facilities.

Today, the user has to select Home View, move the cursor to the 
central icon, hover (or click) to get the palette, move the cursor 
to the Control Panel entry and click; in the Panel move the cursor 
to the facility's icon and click -- only then can he do something.

What Eben's "alternative model" (quoted in part above) proposes is: 
making a control facility "reachable" from the View which that 
facility affects.  [In particular, have an icon in Neighborhood View 
directly launch the 'select the collaboration server to which I want 
to be connected' function.]

The idea is to keep the 'steps to make a change' simple enough so 
that the user does not get distracted and lose sight of his reason 
for *why* he wanted to make that change.

((2)) Making it easier to "pass" text to a control facility.

Today, when the user Registers, the applicable collaboration server 
identity is provided automatically.  But choosing a different server 
might require the user manually typing in that server's IP address.

If today the user has the desired new server's IP address on an 
Activity's screen, he can copy that "character string" to the 
clipboard, then 'paste' it into the Control Panel -> Network -> 
server name field.  But if later he again changes servers, he has to 
again step through providing the desired new server's IP address.

There has been talk of more 'list views'.  I think that server IP 
addresses deserve a list of their own.  There ought to be a facility 
to add/delete entries on this list.  And switching servers ought to 
be simply a matter of bringing up the list, and clicking on the 
entry for the desired new server.

mikus